


You (Are Not) Separate from Us

by latecamellia (caramarie)



Series: Mirrored Lives [1]
Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - ATEEZ Music Videos, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Answer MV, M/M, Parallel Universes, Wonderland MV, doppelgangers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:22:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26101108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caramarie/pseuds/latecamellia
Summary: When the eight of them are separated exploring an old building, Wooyoung goes missing – and maybe Hongjoong knows more about it than he’s letting on.MV-inspired AU.
Relationships: Choi San & Jung Wooyoung, Jeong Yunho/Kim Hongjoong, Kang Yeosang & Jung Wooyoung
Series: Mirrored Lives [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1920370
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1

When they’d entered the building, San hadn’t expected there to be so many _stairs_. There had only been five storeys from the outside, but he felt like he’d been climbing for twice that before he reached the door at the top.

Most of the others had gone through the door ahead of him; it was only Wooyoung and Hongjoong who were still on the stairs. San opened the door without waiting for them, and entered a long corridor.

The door swung shut behind him. The corridor ahead was empty, and the air had a dead feeling to it, like no-one had been there in a long time. There was no sign of the others.

San jogged down the corridor a few steps and called out for the others. Seonghwa had been just ahead of him – he couldn’t have gotten far, San thought. But he called and there was no answer.

It was disconcerting. San backed up to the door he’d come through, but when he opened the door, it didn’t lead back to the staircase at all. Instead, it led to a child’s bedroom. There were toys arranged carefully on the bedspread; picture books lined up neatly on a shelf.

There was no way San had got the wrong door. He went and checked the others nearby, just to be sure, but they only led to more bedrooms. Not back to the stairs. Not back to Wooyoung or Hongjoong, or any of the others.

‘ _Let’s go check out the magic house_ ,’ San muttered. ‘ _It’s an obvious place for someone to put a conduit_.’ He hit the wall with the side of his fist, and it sounded like solid wood and not at all like an illusion put here to trick him.

He’d just have to find another exit, he told himself. The house might have been ensorcelled, but there still had to be a way out. He just had to find it.

* * *

Wooyoung, following through the door after San, did _not_ end up in a corridor. Instead he walked straight into a room full of mirrors. If he hadn’t been so surprised, maybe he wouldn’t have let the door fall shut behind him. But he heard it shut, heard the latch click, while the him in the mirror looked back with wide eyes.

Wooyoung turned, reached for the door handle – but there was no handle from this side, and the back of the door was a mirror itself.

The Wooyoung in the mirror left off reaching out his hand, and he gave a little wave.

Then someone grabbed him from behind, and everything went black.

* * *

Hongjoong was last to the door. He knew something of how the building worked already; that was why he’d brought them here. It had been the house of a sorcerer, back before the cataclysm; and while the house’s owner had long since disappeared, the magic should have remained. That made it a prime target for the other world to use for one of their conduits. If there was a conduit, their group could disrupt it; if there wasn’t, then perhaps they could stop the house from being used for one. This was the reasoning Hongjoong had presented to the group, and it was the reasoning that had led them here.

It wasn’t why Hongjoong had come here.

Hongjoong knew how the doors worked. He could have chosen somewhere specific for this one to take him; but it wasn’t like he could know where any of the others might have ended up. So he opened the door without thought.

Maybe it was because he felt guilty about bringing them here that it led to the cell block.

The corridor itself wasn’t so different from the one San had found himself in, but the locks on the outside of the doors were different. They were meant to keep the inhabitants in, not other people out. On this side of the mirror, of course, they were all unlocked, abandoned.

Hongjoong thought then of his counterpart, sitting in one of those rooms. His mirror image, pulled through to the wrong side.

Hongjoong stopped by one of the doors and he pushed it open.

It was a plain room, with a bed and a dressing table, and a mirror on the dressing table that had been left uncovered. Seeing it, Hongjoong felt a familiar fear – no-one wanted to see something in the mirror that wasn’t in the world with them.

But he didn’t need to worry, did he? If the other Hongjoong _were_ locked in one of these rooms, they never would have left a mirror there with him. So it was safe to look; anyone he saw could only be a friend.

He walked to the mirror, and he looked at himself. At his bare face reflected back at him. At himself wearing someone else’s clothes. But they were the sort of thing he might have picked for himself, once, and looking at his reflection was like seeing the person he might have been.

Hongjoong pulled a blanket from the bed to cover the mirror. And then he sat down and waited.

* * *

After having wandered through the building for some hours, San felt confident in his assessment that it was bigger than it had seemed from the outside. Not that he had anyone to share this with – all the rooms he’d been through, and he hadn’t found even one of his friends.

At the moment, he was walking through a garden. Maybe it had started as a greenhouse and grown wild; there did seem to be a path through it, but that path was bedded down with fallen leaves, and the plants refused to leave the way open. They reached out, and scratched.

At one point, San passed a hummock that had been stuck with spears, and he couldn’t be sure that it wasn’t a body. It was the sort of place you could imagine things like that. He told himself it was probably a sort of garden sculpture, and tried not to think about whether he’d passed the same red hanging blossom three times already.

Still, the garden was indoors, and at last San came to its limits. He followed the path to an old elevator, the metal grill of the door shaded by foliage.

He hadn’t come across an elevator yet. Maybe, he thought, it would be more helpful than the stairs; so he scrapped the moss from the call button, and he pressed it down firmly. And waited.

He wasn’t sure at first if anything would happen. It would be just like this building, he thought, to have a million doors that took you whichever way they pleased, and an elevator that took you nowhere.

But then he heard the sound of its descent, and more than that, he soon saw, it wasn’t empty.

‘Hyung!’ he cried out. ‘Yeosang!’ It was Seonghwa and Yeosang together, the best sight he’d ever seen. He yanked open the door even before the elevator had stopped, and launched himself inside. He couldn’t help the feeling that the two of them might disappear if he weren’t fast enough. Seonghwa caught him in his lunge, and he patted San’s back, solid and real.

‘What’s out there?’ Yeosang said, looking curiously out the door.

‘It’s a garden,’ San said. ‘It’s creepy; you don’t want to go out there.’ He let go of Seonghwa, and hugged Yeosang too for good measure. ‘I’ve been alone for hours. Where were you guys?’

‘Further down,’ Seonghwa said. ‘But then we heard Yunho over the speaker system, and he told us to come to the fifth floor. You called the elevator before we got there.’

‘You heard from Yunho?’ San said. That was another relief, and he flopped against the wall of the elevator, feeling exhausted all of a sudden. ‘What about the others?’

‘It was just him,’ Seonghwa said, ‘but he said the others were on their way. Shall we go?’ He hovered his finger over the button, and then pressed it at San’s nod.

The elevator creaked back into life. There were more floors listed than there were storeys to the building, but San didn’t want to think about that too much. Maybe it went underground too; maybe that was what Seonghwa had meant by _further down_.

It wasn’t far to the fifth floor, and San’s heart sunk when the elevator came to a stop. He could see it through the grill – another corridor. San was fed up with corridors.

Seonghwa went out first. He was careful to hold his arm over the door until the others were safely out. From outside the elevator, it was clear where they were meant to go – there was a door propped open with an old CRT screen halfway down the corridor.

San’s heart lifted again. Because someone had put that there on purpose. Yunho had put that there on purpose.

There was another corridor, and another propped open door, but then they found him. Yunho was in a dimly lit security room, the walls lined with old TV screens. Each screen showed a different room, or a different angle. Mingi and Jongho had already found their way to the room; they were following Hongjoong’s progress on one of the screens.

‘You made it!’ Jongho said when he heard them, and broke into a smile. ‘We were worried about you, hyung – we couldn’t talk to you in the garden, so we couldn’t give directions.’

‘We’re just waiting for Hongjoong now,’ Yunho said. San came to stand beside him, and Yunho slung an arm around him.

‘And Wooyoung,’ San said. As if Yunho had just forgotten how to count.

Yunho, beside him, turned stiff. ‘Wooyoung hasn’t been on any of the screens,’ he said.

Seonghwa and Yeosang looked at him sharply then, but San stayed still and small.

‘Are they not all monitored?’ Seonghwa said. He turned to the screens with a more careful eye.

‘Apparently not,’ Jongho said. ‘We figured it would be like Wooyoung to get stuck somewhere we couldn’t see.’

‘But Wooyoung wouldn’t just stay in one place,’ San found himself saying. “Not if he could help it.’ He hardly noticed Yunho’s arm around him now, the attempted comfort.

‘Once Hongjoong’s here, we can try the finding spell,’ Mingi said. ‘It’ll be alright.’

‘Will the spell even work in a place like this?’ Yeosang asked.

‘We can walk through the building holding hands if it doesn’t,’ Yunho said. He rubbed San’s back. ‘Either way, we’ll find him.’

They didn’t have to wait much longer before Hongjoong arrived. He seemed a little shame-faced, which San thought was right. He was the one who’d said they should come here to search for the conduit. And there couldn’t even _be_ a conduit here, San knew – if there had been, all that magic would have been drained away, pulled into the world behind the mirrors. So coming here had been pointless after all.

He didn’t say any of that, though. Hongjoong would know it well enough without his pointing out. He waited, though, while Mingi ribbed him about it, and then when that had gone on long enough, he said, ‘Have you got the compass? We need to do a finding spell.’

‘Right,’ Hongjoong said. ‘For Wooyoung.’ He slipped the compass out from the inner pocket of his jacket, and flipped it open. ‘Who’s got something we can use?’

San pulled a ring from his hand, and held it out. You needed something that belonged to the target in order for the finding magic to work, and technically the ring was Wooyoung’s. He’d lent it to San, that was all. Long-term loan.

You needed the item, and you needed blood. They each had to prick their finger, and mix the blood, as if the spell could recognise them from that, and recognise who was missing. Wooyoung could complain about them getting the ring bloody when they found him again.

Hongjoong held the compass out over the ring, watched while the needle spun. And spun.

‘Isn’t it working?’ Seonghwa asked.

‘Just wait,’ Hongjoong said.

‘Do we need to try with something else?’ San asked. The needle wouldn’t settle.

‘It means he’s not here, right?’ Yeosang said. ‘He’s not in this world any more.’

‘‘You mean he’s been taken?’ San said.

Yeosang held Hongjoong’s eyes. Hongjoong made an apologetic face, and then he looked over at the screens. ‘It’s a big house,’ he said. ‘There’ve got to be rooms with mirrors. They could have grabbed him that way.’

‘So we need to go after him,’ San said. He had a mirror that he kept in his bag, and he pulled it out now, ignoring the way Mingi cringed beside him. At the moment, though, the mirror only showed San’s face. ‘This isn’t big enough for all of us, though.’ Usually, you would have needed a mirror in the same place on both sides, but mirrors had always worked a little oddly for San. If Wooyoung was in the other world, San would be able to find him there.

‘We’re not going there to fight them,’ Hongjoong said. ‘We’re going to get Wooyoung back.’

‘Same difference,’ San said.

‘So we don’t all need to go.’

‘Who’d stay behind?’ San asked, and he let his arm fall. ‘We should find the mirror they took him through and we should all go.’

‘If he was _taken_ ,’ Yunho said, ‘then that means that mirror is watched, right? So it’s better not to use it, unless we do want a fight.’

San looked affronted at Yunho’s taking sides against him, but Hongjoong cut in before he could say anything.

‘So San will use the pocket mirror,’ Hongjoong said. ‘As for who goes –’

‘I’ll go too,’ Yeosang said quickly.

‘How many do you think you can fit?’ Mingi asked. He eyed San’s mirror, but kept away from it.

San looked back in the mirror, angling it up and down. ‘I think three’s probably pushing it. Yeosang, c’mere.’

Yeosang came and stood close to him, so that they could see their faces next to each other. It would work, San thought. They’d need this mirror to get back though.

‘You’ve got the other mirror, right, hyung?’ San said. He tucked his back in his bag.

‘Right,’ Hongjoong said. He found the mirror in his jacket pocket, and he opened it awkwardly in front of them.

‘Right,’ San said, and looped his arm in Yeosang’s. ‘We’ll be off.’

‘Come back safe,’ Seonghwa said.

‘We’ll come back when we’ve got Wooyoung,’ San said.

He reached out to the little mirror, concentrating on the surface. He thought about Wooyoung. Thought about how he’d pulled the ring off Wooyoung’s dresser one morning and tried it on without asking. And Wooyoung had caught him at it, and he’d asked him …

The reflection changed, to show Wooyoung’s face in a darkened room.

Yeosang’s grip tightened on San’s arm.

San let his fingers touch the surface of the mirror, and then pass through.


	2. Chapter 2

Once San and the others were gone, Hongjoong started to pace the room. Yunho watched him. And when Hongjoong went for the door, Yunho stopped him.

‘I just need some air,’ Hongjoong said. It was claustrophobic, the five of them in one small room, lit by the unnatural light of the TV screens. It would have been claustrophobic even if Hongjoong had been who he said he was.

‘What air?’ Yunho said. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve known how to get outside this whole time.’

Hongjoong laughed awkwardly.

‘It was hard enough getting everyone here in the first place,’ Yunho said. It made Hongjoong feel guilty, when Yunho said things like that, so like an obedient child, Hongjoong sat. He kept his back to the TV screens.

Yunho sat down too, in front of the doorway – like he thought Hongjoong might make a run for it, Hongjoong thought. Or he didn’t want to let him out of his sight.

‘How long do you think they’ll be?’ Jongho asked. He was drumming his fingers against the floor. ‘What’re we meant to do if we need the bathroom?’

‘Do we know if this building even has bathrooms?’

‘Maybe all the doors lead bathrooms,’ Mingi said, ‘if you’re desperate.’

‘It doesn’t seem like a very sensible design for a building,’ Seonghwa said.

‘Yeah, bad architecture’s the problem here,’ Yunho said. He hesitated. His eyes flickered over Hongjoong, but didn’t settle. ‘If it was those guys … it’s like they knew we were coming. But why? There’s obviously no conduit here, so it’s not like they’d be watching it.’

‘They could have been,’ Mingi said, ‘if they did want to use it.’

Hongjoong shifted uncomfortably, even though no-one was talking specifically to him. ‘Maybe San and Yeosang can ask them while they’re over there,’ he said.

‘I hope not,’ Seonghwa said. ‘I’d rather they brought Wooyoung back without running into them at all.’

‘It might be good if we could talk to them though,’ Yunho said. He rested his chin on his knees. ‘Find out why they’re doing all this.’

‘We know why they’re doing it,’ Jongho said. ‘They want to drain our world dry.’

‘I wonder,’ Yunho said. He frowned slightly, unfocused. For a moment, Hongjoong considered telling him everything. He only wanted it to be Yunho though, not the others. If he were going to give himself up.

‘They probably think they’re doing the same thing we are,’ he said. Yunho’s eyes sharpened on him, but Hongjoong shut his mouth again.

He couldn’t think of them like his friends, he knew. He should have been working against them right now – warning the others back home, or convincing them to split up here – but what was he doing instead? Waiting around for San and Yeosang to mess up his plans.

And the sad thing was he couldn’t even be sure he didn’t want them to succeed.

* * *

The change was always disorienting when it happened. Even if you only passed through into the mirror of the room you’d been standing in, there would be a lurch, like you’d been translated into a world perpendicular to your own. And moving to a different place was worse.

Moving to a different place, and seeing Wooyoung on his knees, arms held slack in chains, was worse.

Yeosang made a distressed noise, and Wooyoung looked up. He looked at the two of them almost as if they were ghosts.

‘We need to get you out of there,’ San said, and he and Yeosang moved toward Wooyoung as one. They set about examining the restraints, looking for weaknesses.

‘How did you guys escape?’ Wooyoung asked. He sounded dazed.

San glanced at Yeosang, and then he answered, ‘We didn’t.’

‘Everyone ended up in different places when we went through that door,’ Yeosang said. ‘I guess you went and drew the short straw.’

‘It was a room of mirrors,’ Wooyoung said. ‘I saw him and … I guess one of them knocked me out and dragged me here. How did you –’

‘We used the pocket mirror,’ San said, and he put a hand on his bag, reassuring himself that the mirror was still there..

Yeosang gave up on the chains, and stood back. ‘I think we’ll need the key. Or a screwdriver, maybe.’

‘Or an axe,’ San said.

‘Do you have an axe?’

‘No, but if we have to go looking … did you see any of them once they brought you here?’

Wooyoung shook his head. He tried to stand up properly, although there was no real way to be comfortable with the weight of the chains.

‘So we don’t know who has the key,’ Yeosang said. He walked toward the door and checked the handle. It wouldn’t move. ‘Looks like we’re stuck here until someone comes anyway.’

‘Do we need it though?’ Wooyoung asked. ‘The chains won’t make a difference to the mirror, will they?’

Yeosang stared at him and then he laughed with relief.

‘I don’t know,’ San said, less certain. ‘I never tried to bring anyone through who was chained up before.’

‘I mean, as long as I’m not going to get ripped to pieces ...’

‘I think you’d just get left behind.’

‘Oh, you think.’

Yeosang was still at the door, listening. Now he said, ‘Someone’s coming.’

‘Already?’ San said. He looked between the door and Wooyoung. ‘I’m putting us through the mirror.’

He pulled the mirror from his bag, but he still waited for Wooyoung to nod his agreement. ‘Yeosang, come on.’

It was tricky, getting all three of them in frame, and the chains didn’t help. But once they were, San thought about Hongjoong, about their own world. 

The mirror’s reflection didn’t change.

‘What’re you doing?’ Wooyoung said in a hiss.

‘I’m trying,’ San said. ‘It’s not that easy.’

‘Try differently,’ Yeosang said.

San huffed, but he changed tack, and thought of Yunho instead. Didn’t he spend more time with Yunho, after all? And there was something relaxing, always, about being with him.

The reflection changed then. He saw Yunho and Hongjoong there together, in the room full of televisions. Then he touched the mirror.

They passed through. Yunho and Hongjoong scrambled to their feet, and San looked about himself wildly. But there was only Yeosang beside him.

‘What’s wrong?’ Hongjoong said, looking between the two of them with a concerned face. ‘Couldn’t you find Wooyoung?’

‘We _found_ him,’ San said.

‘We got interrupted,’ Yeosang said.

San crouched down on his heels. ‘We should’ve still been able to bring him back,’ he said, and he made a growling noise. ‘He was chained up though.’

‘That messed things up, then?’ Hongjoong said. ‘Did they see you? If you were interrupted …’

‘They saw us,’ Yeosang said. He sounded pissed off. ‘ _I_ did.’

‘It was the other Yeosang?’

This Yeosang nodded.

‘If it was only you,’ Jongho said, ‘then no offense, you two could have just taken him.’ 

Yeosang looked unimpressed. ‘It was only him that we _saw_.’

‘And if he saw you,’ Hongjoong said, ‘presumably he’d get the others.’ Although it was hard for Hongjoong to tell, sometimes, what Yeosang might do.

‘Maybe we should do this properly,’ Mingi said. ‘Bring everyone through.’

‘Wooyoung said there was a room of mirrors,’ Yeosang said. ‘But we’d have to know how to get there.’ He turned to look sternly at the doorway, as if it could be intimidated into betraying itself.

‘We have no idea how they work though,’ Hongjoong said. ‘It worked when Yunho was giving directions, but –’

‘That’s weird though, isn’t it?’ Mingi said. ‘We all ended up in different places when we used the first door. Or if you tried toubling back.’

‘Yunho was telling us where we were going,’ San said. He was thinking out loud. ‘We had a place in mind. When I ended up in the garden, I’d been thinking I wanted to _get out_. Maybe the garden was the best it could do?’

‘You think our thoughts direct the doorways?’ Seonghwa asked.

San gave a small nod. ‘It’s like the mirrors, maybe ....’

‘The mirrors only work like that for you though,’ Yunho said.

‘People _lived_ here, right?’ San said. ‘They can’t just’ve been walking into random rooms all the time. That’s stupid.’

‘They might’ve used something to control the doors,’ Seonghwa said. ‘A token maybe. That way it would only have been intruders who got lost.’

‘Maybe,’ San said. He chewed his lip. ‘So we want to find this room of mirrors?’

‘Maybe we should wait,’ Hongjoong said. ‘If we rush in, we might just get into more trouble. The mirror room is meant to be a trap, right?’

‘But they know we know about them now,’ San said. ‘We don’t want to give them time to prepare.’

Seonghwa ignored the ensuing argument, and went to move the TV that was holding the door open. Yunho, who was still standing in the doorway, shifted out the way.

‘What are you doing?’ he asked.

‘I want to try something,’ Seonghwa said. He closed the door, and then, with an intent expression, opened it again.

Instead of the hallway, the door led to a large industrial kitchen. Seonghwa gave a satisfied nod.

‘Is that what you meant it to be?’ Yunho asked.

‘I saw it on the monitors,’ Seonghwa said. ‘I thought if we were going to plan something, we may as well do it on a full stomach.’ He looked over his shoulder at the others. ‘I think we better go through all at once, though, just in case.’

No-one argued with that.

* * *

Back on the other side of the mirror, Wooyoung had found himself looking into the eyes of a startled Yeosang.

‘That was fast,’ Yeosang said. He set the tray he was carrying down by the door, and walked toward Wooyoung. Wooyoung jerked back instinctively – but Yeosang had only come to pick up the mirror San had dropped when he travelled through it.

Yeosang snapped the mirror shut, and he looked at Wooyoung with consideration. ‘There’s silver in the chains,’ he said. ‘So you can’t get through the mirror that way.’

‘Thanks,’ Wooyoung said. ‘Couldn’t you have come and explained that a little earlier?’

From the way his lip curled, Yeosang thought that was funny. ‘Well, your friends didn’t stick around to find out. I have the key too.’ He lifted the key chain out his pocket, and yanked his hand back when Wooyoung made a grab for it.

‘Fuck you,’ Wooyoung said.

Yeosang shrugged, as if Wooyoung’s anger didn’t bother him. He sat down with his back against the wall, like he was preparing to settle in..

Wooyoung flicked his eyes to the tray Yeosang had brought in. He presumed it was for him to eat, but now Yeosang was going to act like an ass and make Wooyoung ask.

‘They’ll come back, I’m sure,’ Yeosang said. Which wasn’t what Wooyoung had expected him to say.

‘Then maybe you’ll stick around till then?’

Yeosang smiled, looking past him. ‘I don’t think that would work out.’

Wooyoung looked at the tray again, and this time Yeosang followed his gaze.

‘Oh, right,’ he said. ‘Did you want to eat?’

Wooyoung’s first instinct was to say no. He wasn’t going to eat their weird through-the-mirror food, or take anything from someone who was keeping him in chains. But on the other hand, he didn’t know how long it would be until the others tried to come back. And maybe he could still get the key off Yeosang.

‘I’ll eat,’ Wooyoung said.

Despite the chains, Wooyoung could still move around a lot. That’s why, when Yeosang came over and set the tray down, Wooyoung could headbutt him.

‘What the fuck, Wooyoung!’ Yeosang said. He staggered back, but Wooyoung had already grabbed the key off him. He fumbled with it, trying to unlock his own shackles.

Yeosang put a hand to his forehead, looking dazed. Then he refocused on what Wooyoung was doing. ‘You couldn’t have waited for me to do it?’

‘Shut up,’ Wooyoung said. This Yeosang spoke too familiarly, and it disturbed him.

Wooyoung managed to get one of the manacles off before Yeosang came back over. He closed a hand over Wooyoung’s. ‘Just be patient,’ he said. His hand was gentle, and Wooyoung was startled enough that he let Yeosang take the key from him. Yeosang unlocked his other wrist and pocketed the key again. He looked at the tray – the soup had spilled, but the rest of the meal was unscathed.

‘Sorry there’s less than expected,’ he said.

Wooyoung took the soup bowl and he threw it, aiming at Yeosang’s head. Yeosang caught the bowl, but not without the remaining soup spilling on him. That was some satisfaction to Wooyoung, petty as it was.

‘Don’t talk like you’re doing me a favour,’ Wooyoung said.

‘Are you going to throw all the food at me, then?’

Wooyoung took a moment to answer. ‘I haven’t decided yet,’ he said. But he did eat in the end, while Yeosang watched him, and stayed out of reach. The food wasn’t terrible; he supposed he should be grateful for that.

While he ate, he asked, ‘Want to explain why I’ve been kidnapped and you’re keeping me prisoner?’

Yeosang hesitated. ‘It’s nothing personal.’

‘You’re our doppelgangers,’ Wooyoung said. ‘It feels pretty personal.’

Yeosang let out a noise like a laugh. ‘We just want to stop you from messing things up,’ he said. ‘For the world.’

‘ _Your_ world.’

‘Yes, our world. Every time we think things have stabilised, you interfere.’

‘So, what, you’re kidnapping us keep us out the way?’

‘Pretty much.’

‘And when your world drains ours dry?’

Yeosang shrugged. ‘You’ll still be here, I guess.’

‘Do you know that?’ Wooyoung asked. Yeosang didn’t answer. Not that it should have mattered to Wooyoung. ‘I guess it might be easier for you if we disappeared. That way you can forget our world was ever here at all.’

‘That’s not how it is.’

‘Then how is it?’ It had been a long time since Wooyoung was this mad at Yeosang.

‘We’re doing the same thing you are,’ Yeosang said stubbornly. ‘The exact same.’

‘It’s not the same!’ Wooyoung said, and again he threw one of the dishes, saw Yeosang flinch as it missed him and hit the wall.

The dish broke into pieces.

Wooyoung was breathing hard. But Yeosang looked unmovable. He hardly even seemed ruffled. Wooyoung had asked him once, _‘Don’t you get angry?_ ’ and Yeosang had furrowed his brow and said, _‘I am angry.’_ Except that had been a different Yeosang. Hadn’t it?

‘If it’s the same thing,’ Wooyoung said, ‘why aren’t you angry?’

Yeosang frowned, and the expression was intimately familiar. ‘I am angry,’ he said.

And Wooyoung, suddenly, wasn’t.

He looked down at his own hands.

‘Do you remember when we were small,’ he said, ‘and we got in that fight with those kids down the road? Or I guess I got into the fight.’ He looked up into Yeosang’s eyes. ‘It was after your birthday. Do you remember?’

‘I remember,’ Yeosang said. It was a different frown he wore now.

‘That was before, wasn’t it?’

_Before_ , said like that, only meant one thing in Wooyoung’s world. He thought it was probably the same in Yeosang’s. Before the cataclysm. Before the disappearances started, and mirrors became untrustworthy.

Yeosang’s voice cracked when he answered. ‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘it was.’

‘Before,’ Wooyoung repeated. He stopped to think. ‘Do you think we’re very different? Me and him?’

Yeosang didn’t answer right away. ‘I don’t think so,’ he said, and cleared his throat. ‘I guess that’s why I came down here. I wanted to find out.’

‘Yeah,’ Wooyoung said. Except he hadn’t wanted to find out, had he? That the ones through the mirror were people like them. Could get angry like them.

Maybe had even been them.

‘I think,’ Yeosang said, ‘I’ll come back later.’

‘Yeah, okay,’ Wooyoung said, as if Yeosang were a visitor and not a jailer. ‘I won’t throw anything at you next time.’

Yeosang laughed, and seemed surprised at himself for laughing. He gathered up the tray, the broken pieces of the bowl Wooyoung had thrown. He didn’t try and redo the shackles on Wooyoung’s wrists, and Wooyoung didn’t try to attack him again.

Because he’d learned something, from being here. He thought maybe it was something important.

If he’d been rescued before, he might not have learned it.

That was an odd feeling. He’d stopped being angry, but what he felt now wasn’t any more comfortable.


	3. Chapter 3

The stainless steel and the refrigeration thrum in the kitchen didn’t really match the feel of the rest of the building. It wasn’t the sort of kitchen you’d find in someone’s home, and even with the seven of them, the space seemed to echo.

Still, the fridges and the pantry were well stocked. Exactly how they were stocked was a mystery, but the food all seemed fresh and in good condition.

‘How is there still so much power here?’ Yeosang asked. They were used to small magics, like the finding spell, or things like the mirrors that were more like natural phenomena than intentional acts of power.

‘People really used to live differently, huh?’ Jongho said. Even though the cataclysm had happened in their lifetimes, they were too young to really remember what things had been like before. The diminishing world was what they were used to.

While the others set about preparing lunch, Yunho pulled Hongjoong aside.

‘Hey, can we talk for a minute?’

Hongjoong looked down at Yunho’s hand on his arm. ‘Sure,’ he said, and when Yunho gestured his head away from the others, Hongjoong followed his lead.

Hongjoong knew from the tone of Yunho’s voice and the pensive expression he wore that Yunho was going to ask him the truth. Yunho seemed reluctant, though, even when they were out of eavesdropping distance. He put his hands in his pockets and was quiet, so Hongjoong had to speak first.

‘What did you want to talk about?’

Yunho wet his lips. Then he looked Hongjoong in the eye. ‘There’s no conduit here, is there?’ he said. ‘A building with this much power still active, there’s no way there’s a conduit. But tell me you didn’t already know that.’

‘How could I know?’ Hongjoong said. ‘I know maybe we wasted our time coming here, but it was a good lead –’

‘I watched you, you know,’ Yunho said. ‘On the monitors. Everyone else was looking for a way back to the others, but you were just waiting.’

Hongjoong had no answer to that.

‘Were you hoping we’d all get dragged through the mirror without you having to do anything?’ Yunho’s voice wasn’t loud, but it still cut.

‘What are you talking about?’ Hongjoong said. ‘Of course I don’t want anyone to get dragged through the mirror. I didn’t know this place would still be awake.’

‘You’re lying.’

‘I’m not lying,’ Hongjoong said. ‘Why are you being like this?’

‘You’re not our Hongjoong,’ Yunho said. Like a slap.

Hongjoong just stared at him. ‘How could you say that?’

Yunho glanced over his shoulder, toward where the others were. Out of view.

‘I don’t want to say it,’ Yunho said. ‘I don’t want to even think it.’

‘So don’t think it,’ Hongjoong said. ‘Just believe me.’

Yunho looked at him a long moment. And then he took Hongjoong’s face in his hands, and Hongjoong froze, trapped by the intensity of Yunho’s eyes. And then Yunho kissed him.

Hongjoong didn’t know how to react. He didn’t know whether he was meant to push Yunho away, like he’d made a bad joke, or whether he was meant to kiss Yunho back; whether Yunho had been expecting to kiss him this whole time and Hongjoong had tripped up because he hadn’t known, hadn’t realised …

Yunho pulled back, still cupping Hongjoong’s face in his hands, and he said, ‘Tell me when the last time we did that was.’

And Hongjoong didn’t know. He couldn’t even begin to guess, because he could hardly even think, with the closeness of Yunho’s face to his.

Yunho let him go. He put his hands in his pockets again, and he said, ‘Where is he?’

Hongjoong couldn’t lie any more. ‘Through the mirror,’ he said. ‘He’s safe.’

‘Chained up?’ Yunho asked.

Hongjoong tried not to flinch. ‘No. He’s safe. Look, it’s not about … we’re not trying to hurt you,’ he said. ‘We just need you to stop.’

‘But you did hurt us,’ Yunho said. ‘You hurt me.’

‘That wasn’t the point.’

‘How long have you been pretending?’

Hongjoong was really going to fold and tell him everything. ‘It was after the museum,’ he said. ‘It wasn’t … what are you going to do?’

Yunho searched his eyes, and Hongjoong tried to seem honest. Even if it was too late for that.

‘We have to get him back,’ Yunho said.

It felt somehow, stupidly, like a rejection. Yunho hadn’t been kissing _him_ after all; he’d still been hoping for his own Hongjoong. Hongjoong knew that.

‘Are you going to try and stop me?’ Yunho asked.

‘How can I stop you?’ Hongjoong hadn’t even been able to betray them properly, even though it meant letting his own team down.

Yunho looked at him with sharp eyes, as if he could see what Hongjoong was thinking. ‘I don’t know,’ Yunho said. ‘I thought we might get in a fist fight.’

‘Would that be hard for you?’ Hongjoong asked. If Yunho went around kissing the other Hongjoong, then surely he’d have some compunctions about their getting in a fight.

‘Probably,’ Yunho said. ‘I’m still bigger than you though.’ A smile ghosted over his face, before he looked back toward the other end of the room. ‘I’ll let you tell the others, if you want.’

‘Tell them I’m a fake?’ Hongjoong took a deep breath. ‘Don’t you even want to know why I did this?’

‘I think I know enough.’

‘You don’t know anything!’ Hongjoong said it too loudly; he felt sure the others were going to hear and come over. But maybe that didn’t matter. ‘We’re not going to just roll over and let our world die.’

‘So that makes it okay to kill ours?’ Yunho had a wild look in his eye.

‘It’s the same thing,’ Hongjoong said. ‘We’re not doing anything different –’ He cut himself off then, seeing Seonghwa coming toward them. Yunho followed his eyes.

‘What’s going on?’ Seonghwa asked. ‘Lunch is nearly ready.’

‘Hongjoong has something to share with the group,’ Yunho said. His voice had a snap to it.

Seonghwa looked at Hongjoong. Who didn’t want to say anything. He wanted to rewind time, to back before Yunho’s suspicions had crystallised.

‘What is it?’ Seonghwa asked. Without any suspicion.

Hongjoong didn’t want to incriminate himself to Seonghwa. He rounded on Yunho. ‘I’m not going to explain myself,’ he said. ‘You already decided what you think anyway.’

‘Explain what?’ Seonghwa asked. He looked between Hongjoong and Yunho, neither of whom looked like they planned to back down.

‘This isn’t our Hongjoong,’ Yunho said.

Hongjoong thought about making a run for it, then. Get to the door, hope someone was there to pull him through the mirror – but almost as soon as the thought had entered his head, he dismissed it.

‘You said you’d want to talk,’ he said. ‘So let’s talk.’

* * *

Somehow, talking became Seonghwa having to hold San back from attacking Hongjoong. Not that Seonghwa didn’t look like he might want to punch Hongjoong himself – which was fair, Hongjoong had to admit. If he’d been in their situation, he would have wanted to tear the traitor apart too.

‘Wooyoung is stuck there because of you!’ San was saying. ‘Hongjoong is stuck there.’

Hongjoong wanted to say _you didn’t even notice the difference_ , but he held his tongue. Yunho was watching him, after all, his eyes filled with all the judgement in the world. And even though it was the same Yunho who had just pressed his lips to Hongjoong’s, Hongjoong somehow didn’t think he would have stopped San from trying to kill him.

‘If you want your Hongjoong back,’ Hongjoong said, ‘you better calm down.’ He sounded cooler, more together than he felt. Or so he hoped.

‘He’s right,’ Yeosang said. ‘We should think about this calmly.’ He lifted an eyebrow. ‘They might be more willing to deal with us, now we know.’

‘We shouldn’t be making deals,’ San said.

‘If it gets our Hongjoong and Wooyoung back,’ Mingi said, ‘I don’t care what deals we make.’

‘You can get in contact with them, right?’ Yunho said to Hongjoong. ‘Why don’t you do that now? We’ll watch.’

There was a reason Hongjoong had kept the pocket mirror on him; it had been spelled to let him talk to the others, even if they weren’t in the same space. He reached for it now, telling them what he was doing, and Yunho came and held tight to Hongjoong’s shoulder, so that Hongjoong couldn’t slip through without him. It could have been a comfort as easily as a burden: it was just a matter of context.

Hongjoong opened the mirror. Stared at their reflections for a minute, Yunho’s handsome face behind his. The reflection remained solid, unwavering; there was no sign of anyone on the other side.

He shut the mirror again. ‘They’re not expecting to hear from me,’ he said. ‘Probably busy preparing for you lot to storm through.’

‘Fine,’ San said. ‘If that’s what we’ve got to do. We’ll find this mirror room, and we’ll tell them to bring Wooyoung and Hongjoong back through, or –’ He cut himself off. Even angry, he seemed reluctant to say something like _you’re dead_.

Which Hongjoong thought was funny, given how hard they were fighting in general. It was the same in both directions, he supposed. They were fighting for the same thing, after all, just from different perspectives.

Maybe they needed an approach that wasn’t just fighting.

* * *

After leaving Wooyoung, Yeosang had gone to clean himself up, and to think about what the two of them had talked about.. About the relationship between their two worlds, and their two selves. After which he decided he’d better go talk to Hongjoong.

There was a convenience to the building, once you were used to it – Yeosang only had to pass through his bedroom door to find himself in the right hallway.

When he unlocked the door to Hongjoong’s room, Mingi was already there. He and Hongjoong were perched on the bed playing cards, and Mingi jumped when he heard Yeosang came in, and turned around looking guilty.

‘You two look comfortable,’ Yeosang said. He was less inclined to call Mingi on his fraternising with the prisoner than he was to wonder how much Mingi had worked out.

‘I just brought Hongjoong his lunch.’

And had had nothing thrown at him, Yeosang noted; but Hongjoong hadn’t done that even at the start.

‘It’s fine,’ Yeosang said. ‘I just wanted to talk to him.’ At Mingi’s uncertain expression, he added, ‘Don’t let me stop your game.’

Mingi looked back at Hongjoong, as if he were asking permission. Hongjoong gave a little shrug, and Mingi settled back down.

‘I was talking to Wooyoung just now,’ Yeosang said. ‘Your Wooyoung.’

‘Okay,’ Hongjoong said, and frowned. ‘How?’ His eyes flicked between Yeosang and Mingi; Mingi hunched his shoulders. ‘What’s going on?’

‘He’s over here,’ Yeosang said, ‘for now. That’s not why I’m here.’ The next part would come as a non-sequitur. ‘The cataclysm was twelve years ago, right?’

‘Right,’ Hongjoong said.

‘You knew Yunho before then?’

‘Yeah. What’s this about?’

‘But Mingi you met after.’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘Have you spoken to Yunho much? On this side, I mean.’

‘No,’ Hongjoong said. ‘I think … no.’

‘Do you want me to get him?’ Mingi asked.

‘No,’ Yeosang, ‘that’s not necessary.’ It would have been easier for him to frame this if Yunho were here, that was all. ‘I was wondering what’s the same and what’s different. About our worlds. Wooyoung and I knew each other since we were little ...’

‘Yeah,’ Hongjoong said. ‘You two say that all the time.’

‘ _I_ don’t,’ Yeosang said.

‘Uh, you do –’ Mingi started, but Yeosang cut him off.

‘No, he doesn’t know what I do.’ He looked back at Hongjoong. ‘You’re just assuming it would be the same.’

‘I guess.’ Hongjoong looked wary now.

‘But what Wooyoung and I remembered was _actually_ the same.’ It sounded lame now he said it – he knew things could have happened the same way, coincidentally. But even just knowing that the mirror world was as real as their own, had a history of its own – Yeosang had to wonder how much was the same. How much _could_ be the same.

The most popular theory about the cataclysm was that an attempt to open a path between the two worlds had been what destabilised them. But that wasn’t the only theory.

‘Do you think that the cataclysm brought our worlds together?’ Yeosang asked. ‘Or do you think it split them apart?’

Hongjoong looked confused.

‘I mean, do you think we were the same world? Before then.’

‘I guess … I assumed we were always two worlds?’ Hongjoong said. ‘It’s the mirror image, right? You can’t have one without the other.’

Yeosang shook his head. ‘That’s the whole reason we’re fighting, right? You can’t have one _and_ the other. It’s unstable.’ Thus the disappearances.

‘Okay,’ Hongjoong said. ‘And what’s this got to do with capturing any of us?’

‘It doesn’t,’ Yeosang said. ‘It’s just that we hadn’t spoken like this before.’ It seemed like a clear oversight, now that he thought about it. They’d made so many assumptions.

‘The other Hongjoong and I were talking,’ Hongjoong muttered, ‘before he did _this_.’ That was how he’d let his guard down long enough to be captured like this.

‘But not about your past, right?’ Yeosang said. ‘Why would you?’

‘You’re saying we used to be the same people,’ Mingi said. He looked at Hongjoong, as the only representative from the other side of the mirror. ‘Until the cataclysm.’

‘Right.’

‘And so what?’ Hongjoong said. ‘There’s two of us now.’ Two worlds, and if they carried on like this, both would die.

So they had to try something different.

* * *

San was the first one into the room of mirrors. His reflection had barely time to register him, before San strode through the mirror, and demanded, ‘Where’s Wooyoung?’ It didn’t matter to him that in that initial moment he was surrounded; he was that angry.

He grabbed mirror San by his stupid black shirt and mirror San was too startled to push him off.

To be fair, it _was_ startling, to be that close to someone who looked just like you.

‘Where is he?’ San said.

‘He’s not here,’ mirror Seonghwa said. San let go of his doppelganger, and turned.

‘What about Hongjoong?’ San said He went and jabbed Seonghwa in the chest. ‘Is he not here either?’

Seonghwa didn’t answer right away.

‘Look, we know,’ San said. He spat the words out. ‘So if you want to see _your_ Hongjoong again, you’ll tell us.’

Seonghwa sighed. Like San was trying him.

‘Maybe we’d rather keep your Hongjoong,’ Jongho said behind him. San whirled on him, but Jongho had his hands up peaceably. ‘I mean, _him_ we can tell what to do.’

Seonghwa gave Jongho a flat look. It was an expression San knew well.

‘You can swap Hongjoong for one person,’ Seonghwa said.

‘Um, no,’ San said. ‘We’re swapping for both. That’s the deal.’

‘And why would we go for that?’

‘Because,’ San said, ‘our Seonghwa said I could negotiate, and I’m extremely pissed off right now.’

‘It’s not about any of us, though,’ Seonghwa said. ‘So how about _you_ agree to stop destroying the conduits, and we can think about letting you have Hongjoong and Wooyoung back.’

That was more of an ask than San had expected. He felt stupid all of a sudden, having thought they’d go for it. ‘I’d need to talk to Hongjoong first.’

‘He’s not part of this conversation,’ Seonghwa said.

The more Seonghwa said, the less certain San felt. He needed to stay angry, he thought. If he thought about Wooyoung … having to leave him behind …

Yeosang wasn’t with the group here, he realised. Was he still in that room with Wooyoung? Right now?

‘I’ll talk to the others,’ San said. ‘But you’ll bring Hongjoong here so we can see he’s okay.’ He hated asking for Hongjoong’s safety first, when he knew Wooyoung was in chains.

But they could have tried to trick them, with the other Wooyoung. San thought he would know the difference – he thought if mirror Wooyoung was here, he would know him even if he was dressed like his Wooyoung, even if he said his name with the same affection, or frustration – San was sure he would know.

San wasn’t sure the others would buy that, though. So he asked for Hongjoong, because Hongjoong was the one no-one could doubt.

‘Alright,’ Seonghwa said. ‘But we’ll want to see our Hongjoong too.’

San agreed. He would at least take the offer to the others, even if it was steep. They could work out what to do from there.

* * *

‘No way,’ Yeosang said, after San had explained the situation. ‘They can’t ask that.’

‘Well, they _did_ ,’ San said. ‘Do you want to go over there and argue with them?’

‘Yes,’ Yeosang said.

‘I mean, just because we say we agree to it –’ Mingi started.

‘They’re not going to just take our word for it,’ Yeosang said. ‘Would you? We’ll have to make a vow.’

‘Maybe it’s alright,’ Jongho said. ‘It’s not like it has to be us to hunt down the conduits. We’re not the only people in the world. Why does it have to be us anyway?’

‘You think we can just stop?’ Yunho said.

Jongho gave a little shrug, like an apology.

‘It’s the _world_ though,’ San said. ‘We can’t just stop.’

‘Then we find another way,’ Jongho said. ‘Or we give up and leave Hongjoong and Wooyoung over there.’ He didn’t mean it as a real option; they all knew it wasn’t a real option.

‘San, the mirror we came back through,’ Yeosang said. ‘It’s still over there, right?’

‘Yeah,’ San said. ‘You can’t bring it back if you use it.’

‘Then either Wooyoung has it, or _he_ picked it up.’

‘Now I know where Wooyoung is, I can get back there anyway,’ San said slowly. ‘It’s the key we don’t have …’ The other Yeosang had had the key, and San hadn’t seen him with the others. ‘Maybe he’s still with Wooyoung?’

‘We can find out,’ Yeosang said.

‘That’s still only half a plan,’ Yunho said. ‘And they’ll be wanting an answer.’

‘If they give Wooyoung back,’ Seonghwa said, ‘we say yes. If they _can’t_ give Wooyoung back because we’ve already got him, it doesn’t matter if we’ve made a vow or not; it won’t have power.’

‘You’d take that chance?’

‘I want both of them back,’ Seonghwa said simply.

Yunho looked over at San and Yeosang. ‘I’ll get the mirror off Hongjoong,’ he said.

* * *

They’d left Hongjoong at the far end of the room, stuck with his hands and legs bound. Despite the discomfort, he’d almost drifted off to sleep; but when Yunho approached, he woke right up.

‘I need the mirror,’ Yunho told him.

‘They was no-one listening, remember?’ Hongjoong said. Nor, at the moment, did he feel particularly inclined to be helpful.

‘Not for that,’ Yunho said. His expression was stern, unmovable.

Hongjoong thought about refusing. But all Yunho had to do was pat him down anyway. He’d just be making things awkward for both of them.

Not that Yunho hadn’t made it awkward first.

‘Fine,’ Hongjoong said. ‘It’s in my jacket pocket. What do you want it for?’

Yunho went for his pocket, and didn’t answer.

‘Other pocket,’ Hongjoong said. It was a little disconcerting for him to have Yunho leaning over him. He wished he could forget Yunho kissing him. The kiss hadn’t even been _for_ him.

When Yunho had pulled out the mirror and stood back, Hongjoong said, ‘I have a question.’

Yunho flicked him a glance. ‘Okay,’ he said.

Hongjoong drew his breath. ‘When _did_ you and the other Hongjoong first kiss?’

Yunho’s eyes shuttered. ‘Why?’

‘Just curious.’

Yunho slipped the mirror in his own pocket. Hongjoong thought maybe he wouldn’t answer. It wasn’t like it was that invasive a question, he thought – he was basically asking after himself.

Yunho came to a decision, though, standing over him.

‘We never did,’ he said. ‘I tricked you.’

‘You what?’

‘Disappointed?’ Yunho asked, and the side of his mouth quirked, like maybe he wanted to laugh. Bitterly, though.

‘I –’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Yunho said. ‘You’ll be gone soon. We’re making a deal.’

With that, he left Hongjoong alone again.


	4. Chapter 4

‘Are you ready?’ Yeosang asked San.

San nodded. He went to join Yeosang, who had the mirror from Yunho and who had it open now. Just looking at his own reflection, until San joined him and the Yeosang in the mirror startled.

‘I guess I don’t have to mess ’round with it this time,’ San said. Yeosang looked unnerved though, and San squeezed his shoulder.

‘I can hear you,’ said the Yeosang in the mirror. He said something else, to someone they couldn’t see, and then turned back to them. ‘I think we should talk.’

It was their turn, then, to be surprised. ‘Why would we want to talk?’ San said. Then he corrected himself. ‘No, that’s not the point –’

‘We can talk,’ Yeosang said. There was a shaky edge to his voice, and San wondered, for a moment, if they should go through like this. But Yeosang put a hand over San’s, briefly, and then he touched his fingers to the surface of the mirror.

Even that small touch was enough to move them through it. They came through too close to the other Yeosang, who tried to back up, only the room they were in now was too small and he bumped into the furniture.

Before they had time to orient themselves, someone was saying, ‘You two!’ and San and Yeosang were grabbed in a hug by Hongjoong. And it had to be the real Hongjoong, San knew, and so San hugged him back, and wondered what was going on.

They were in a bedroom, small enough that it felt crowded. The mirror Yeosang was standing, looking at them with a tolerant expression. Mingi, sitting on the edge of the bed, looked rather more bewildered. There was a hand of cards laid down beside him.

‘Were you playing _games_?’ San said. Hongjoong and Mingi both looked shifty when he said it.

‘I didn’t want him to be bored,’ Mingi said defensively.

‘And how come Hongjoong’s not all chained up?’ San went on. Hongjoong did a double-take when he said that, and then he shot an accusatory look at Yeosang.

‘It didn’t seem necessary,’ mirror Yeosang said.

‘You didn’t tell me you’d _chained Wooyoung up_ ,’ Hongjoong said.

‘To stop them using the mirrors,’ Yeosang said, sounding peevish. He waved the pocket mirror at them.

‘That’s mine!’ San said. He wondered if he should try and grab it off him, if maybe this was the moment things turned into a fight.

But mirror Yeosang said, ‘It probably doesn’t matter now anyway.’

‘You’re sure about this?’ Mingi asked.

‘How often have you been down here?’ mirror Yeosang said. ‘You don’t really think –’ He looked at the three of them again, and changed his mind about what he would say. ‘I spoke to Wooyoung.’

San paid attention.

‘I think –’ mirror Yeosang only looked at their Yeosang right then – ‘we didn’t used to be different people.’

‘What?’ Yeosang said.

‘What?’ San said next to him.

‘Tell me something you remember from when you were a kid,’ mirror Yeosang said. ‘Like, a little kid.’

Yeosang looked blank for a moment. Then he said, ‘I stood on a bee once.’

‘That’s not unusual,’ Hongjoong said.

Yeosang met his doppelganger’s eyes, waiting for his response.

‘We did it on purpose,’ mirror Yeosang said. ‘Because we wanted to know what a bee sting felt like.’

‘You stood on a bee on purpose?’ San said, looking at Yeosang in horror.

‘ _Once_ ,’ Yeosang said.

‘Well, you knew not to do it again, right?’ mirror Yeosang said.

Yeosang gave a little nod. He looked faint.

Mirror Yeosang gave them a rundown of his thoughts then. How he’d realised talking to Wooyoung that they had memories of the same things – things that had happened before the cataclysm. How he’d come to talk to Hongjoong to see if it was the same for him.

Then he got onto theories for what the cataclysm actually were, and San had to interrupt him and say, ‘What about Wooyoung? You just left him there?’

‘Um,’ mirror Yeosang said. ‘Well, he was pretty mad.’

Before San could say anything more, Hongjoong cut in. ‘I think we need to talk about this properly,’ he said. ‘ _All_ of us.’

It took mirror Yeosang a moment, but then he nodded. ‘We’ll go get Wooyoung first. Then –’

‘Uh, Yeosang?’ Mingi said. ‘You don’t think you might wanna run this by anyone else?’

‘ _I_ want to see that Wooyoung’s safe,’ San said, ‘and there’s three of us and two of you.’

‘You heard him,’ mirror Yeosang said. ‘We’re outnumbered.’

Mingi pulled a face and went to get the door.

And then there was a voice from the hallway, and Mingi stopped.

‘Yeah, he’s here,’ Mingi said, with a wince. He backed into the hallway, out the way, as Seonghwa appeared in the doorway.

Seonghwa stared at them, and he blinked very quickly. ‘What’s going on?’

‘Uh –’ Mingi said. ‘They’re threatening us into letting everyone go?’

‘Hey!’ San said.

Seonghwa gave San a hard look. ‘Is that why you disappeared, then? So you could break our deal?’

‘People who kidnap other people don’t get to complain,’ San said.

Yeosang hit him.

The other Yeosang said, ‘It’s not like that. I was the one who wanted to talk to them.’

Seonghwa’s attention shifted. ‘What are you even doing down here?’

‘I’ll explain,’ mirror Yeosang said, ‘but I said we could go get Wooyoung first.’

Seonghwa looked unimpressed. ‘You know that’s not Wooyoung.’

‘Actually,’ Yeosang said, ‘I don’t know that at all. That’s the point. Look, can you just roll with this?’

‘They know about Hongjoong,’ Seonghwa said. ‘That’s why I came down here.’ He stopped talking to give San a dirty look, as if it were San who’d put them in this situation. Just because San was the one who’d come to confront them about it.

‘Hongjoong’s fine,’ said San’s Yeosang. ‘No-one’s going to do anything to him.’ He glanced at San. ‘We just want to see Wooyoung. Okay?’

Maybe two Yeosangs ganging up on him was too much for Seonghwa; he threw his hands up in the air and he walked back out into the hallway.

‘Hyung,’ San said, and tugged on Hongjoong’s sleeve, ‘maybe you should go with him.’

Seonghwa stopped where he was.

‘The others will want to see you’re safe,’ San mumbled. ‘Otherwise they might think _he_ went back on the deal, and he didn’t.’

Hongjoong took a deep breath. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Where are we going?’

The two groups split up, for the moment. Seonghwa’s group went through the door first, then San’s group.

‘I don’t know how you’re meant to tell all these hallways apart,’ San muttered, as Yeosang led them into another, dimmer corridor.

‘I don’t, always,’ mirror Yeosang said.

There was only one door in this corridor, at the far end from where they entered; it gave the hall an ominous feel. San thought he was glad not to have stumbled in here all on his own.

Mirror Yeosang, however, approached the door without hesitation. The lock was stiff; it took him a few tries to open it, while San felt himself growing tenser. His Yeosang put a hand on his arm, like he telling him to hold his tongue.

‘There we go,’ said the other Yeosang, when the lock did click open – and San pushed past him, through the opening door.

‘Wooyoung!’ he said, seeing him there. Wooyoung’s hands were free this time, but he was still chained around the ankles. ‘Give me the key.’ Yeosang gave him the key obediently.

‘What’s going on?’ Wooyoung said. He squinted at the three of them, as if he were trying to resolve the two Yeosangs into one person. Perhaps that would have made more sense.

‘They came back for you,’ said the mirror Yeosang. San fumbled with the lock on Wooyoung’s shackles; then he pulled the clasp loose on one and then the other, and Wooyoung fell against him, on top of him.

San held onto him, then. He was shaky, and San couldn’t help throwing mirror Yeosang a dirty look. To Wooyoung, he said, ‘It’s okay. They’re letting us go, I think.’

Yeosang came and crouched down beside them too, and Wooyoung grabbed hold of him in turn, reassuring himself they were both real. And then he looked up over them, at the other Yeosang standing there awkwardly.

San sat back, but he took Wooyoung’s hand in his, and kept hold of it.

‘It’s what you said,’ said the other Yeosang. ‘I think we got it all wrong. About the cataclysm. About everything.’

Wooyoung nodded. ‘We shouldn’t be fighting,’ he said. He held onto San’s hand tightly; San wondered that he could say something like that, when he’d been left like this. But that was Wooyoung. He didn’t hold onto grudges.

Yeosang looked up at his doppelganger. ‘You really think we used to be the same?’

The other Yeosang held his eyes, and he nodded.

* * *

Hongjoong wasn’t sure what to expect, when they brought him through the mirror. He should have felt relieved to be on the right side of the world again – except he hadn’t done what he’d set out to do. He’d gotten caught.

Yunho walked behind him, though, so Hongjoong had no choice but to go forward.

His entrance stopped the conversation; there was a tension in the air, as if he’d stepped into an argument. Both Seonghwas looked annoyed, but one of them had eyes that softened when he saw him.

And so he supposed he was relieved.

It was a strange room for a reunion. Reflections on reflections on reflections, suggesting infinite worlds and not just two – not just the Hongjoong who had failed and the Hongjoong he had betrayed, but an infinite number of selves, each with their own secrets.

The other Hongjoong, he noted a little bitterly, wasn’t tied up.

‘Change of plans,’ said the other Seonghwa, talking to Yunho rather than to him. There was only one Yunho in the room, and Hongjoong felt guilty that that was a relief too. He didn’t know if he could deal with the two of them at once.

Yunho stepped in close behind Hongjoong, grabbing hold of his wrist like he might need to do damage. ‘What’s going on?’ he asked.

‘We need to talk,’ Seonghwa said. He didn’t sound happy about it. He looked at Hongjoong, almost as if he wanted to apologise. ‘It wasn’t my idea.’

‘You can let him go,’ said the other Hongjoong to Yunho. ‘I agreed to go along with it. So …’

‘I get it,’ Yunho said. He undid the knot he’d tied between Hongjoong’s wrists, and then he put his hand on the small of Hongjoong’s back, pushing him forward.

Hongjoong took a step, and he rubbed his wrist with his hand. He felt disoriented, standing in this room, where the other Hongjoong somehow had the upper hand. Because he hadn’t come here bound. He knew what was going on.

‘The others will meet us in the dining room,’ Seonghwa said. ‘If you can trust us enough to all come through?’

‘We’re already half of us here,’ said the other Hongjoong. ‘We may as well go all the way.’

Hongjoong looked at Seonghwa and he mouthed, ‘What’s going on?’

Seonghwa gave a little shrug. ‘It was Yeosang’s idea. He’ll have to explain.’ He lifted his eyes to the ceiling. ‘I’m just the messenger.’

‘You are allowed to say no to him, you know,’ Hongjoong said automatically. He heard the other Hongjoong make a sound that could have been laughter; _his_ Seonghwa gave him an offended look.

‘I’ll get the others,’ Yunho said. ‘If you’re sure.’

And the other Hongjoong nodded.

* * *

Once they’d set Wooyoung free, mirror Yeosang led them to a dining room. The four of them waited there for the others, and San fretted.

‘What if they don’t want to go along with it?’ he asked.

‘They’ll go along with it,’ Yeosang said. ‘If you think about it, we’re really hostages at the moment.’

‘Don’t say that,’ Wooyoung said. ‘We’ve got to give them some credit.’

‘For what?’ San muttered. He was still clinging, leaning his weight against Wooyoung’s side. Wooyoung didn’t mind. It was reassuring.

The rest of the group arrived before Wooyoung had to give an answer. All sixteen of them together in one room was overwhelming, and for a few minutes, there was a confusion of greetings.

Eventually, Hongjoong cleared his throat – Wooyoung wasn’t even sure which Hongjoong; San and Yeosang had explained the situation but it was hard for him to appreciate – and suggested they sit down.

They sat. There were exactly sixteen places at the table, which could have been coincidence, or could have been the magic of the building, adjusting itself to their needs.

They sat, until mirror Seonghwa said, ‘Do you want to explain what this is all about, Yeosang?’

And Yeosang got back to his feet. Wooyoung saw him hesitate. All Yeosang’s hesitations were as familiar to him as his own; it didn’t matter which Yeosang.

‘I don’t think the worlds were always separated,’ Yeosang started. ‘I know that’s what we’ve been operating off this whole time, but …’ He met Wooyoung’s eyes across the table. ‘I think they used to be the same world. I don’t think the cataclysm connected the worlds; I think it split them apart. That’s why there’s the sixteen of us. And … I think that’s why things keep disappearing. There’s only meant to be one world, not two. It’s not stable.’

He swallowed. He was still looking at Wooyoung, as if Wooyoung was the one he was trying to make understand. But Wooyoung was already on his side.

‘I think what Yeosang’s trying to say,’ Wooyoung said, ‘is maybe we should try working together instead of against each other.’ He saw Yeosang’s surprise, and then his smile.

‘It’s not getting us anywhere,’ Yeosang said. ‘And … we shouldn’t be trying to destroy each other. Even if we’re different people now. Because we didn’t used to be.’

‘I think even if we didn’t used to be,’ Wooyoung said.

And Yeosang gave him a little nod.

‘I don’t know about the thing with the cataclysm,’ Hongjoong said – the Hongjoong from Wooyoung’s world – ‘but if we can find a better solution for the state we’re in, then I think that has to be a good thing.’ He looked at the other Hongjoong; the one Wooyoung had seen that morning, and the day before, and the day before that, and not known the difference.

‘He’s right,’ that Hongjoong said. ‘If there’s a better way … we should look for it. We can’t keep going like this.’

It occured to Wooyoung then, that he’d known Yeosang before the cataclysm, but he hadn’t known Hongjoong then. He hadn’t met any of the others yet.

And still, in both worlds, there were the eight of them.

That had to mean something, didn’t it?

* * *

After they’d made their deal and drunk to it, Hongjoong went to talk to Yunho. Not _his_ Yunho, because that was a question he didn’t want to think of asking right now, but the other one. Whom he’d watched interact with his own counterpart, with fondness but also with restraint.

And when Yunho was alone – briefly, always briefly – Hongjoong stepped in beside him, and he said, ‘You should tell him.’

Yunho looked at him, did a double-take realising which him it was, and then said, ‘Tell who what?’ Innocently, as if he didn’t know quite well whatHongjoong was talking about.

Hongjoong bit back a sigh. Across the room, his counterpart was telling Mingi a story. They were both laughing.

Hongjoong said, ‘If you love him, you should tell him.’

When he looked at Yunho again, Yunho was holding a hand to his mouth, as if to hide a smile or something else. ‘I think you’re reading too much into it,’ he said.

‘Really?’

Yunho looked away again. At his own Hongjoong. ‘No,’ he said quietly. ‘You’re probably right.’

‘I am,’ Hongjoong said. Yunho glanced at him again, and then he laughed properly, and his laughter was like water in the desert. It made Hongjoong feel better about how all this had played out.

And then the laughter stopped, and Yunho’s gaze drifted away again. He said, ‘We’ll see.’

And if he’d been looking at Hongjoong, maybe Hongjoong would have said something more. But he wasn’t, so Hongjoong let it pass.

There would be other days, anyway.

This was only a beginning for them all.


End file.
